Inquiry learning is an approach to learning that differs from other other kinds because it is student centered. Students make discoveries on their own with the teacher as facilitator rather than teacher as transmitter. Inquiry learning asks a strong, essential question to which there is not a single specified answer. It also links new research and experiences with previous knowledge and/or the outside world. The question posed involves more than one discipline in order to interrelate many subjects. The theory behind the reasearch should be constructivism and help the students build their own knowledge instead of just presenting it. Furthermore, inquiry learning focuses more on the process of learning than the results. Inquiry learning differs from research, study, review, scrutiny, and examination because proper inquiry learning asks students to create new theories, products, or solutions on the questions they've been asked.
Not Evident 1
Partial 2
Exemplary 3
Score
Student Centered
Not student centered and solely teacher centered.
Somewhat student centered by an equal part of teacher facilitation.
Highly student centered with teacher acting solely as facilitator during process.
Research
Research was gathered and stated, yet nothing was done with it. There were no links to other topics.
Collected research was used to bolster or disprove an existing claim and to provide some links to another subject.
Collected research was used to create a new concept, idea, product or claim as well as to provide links to other subjects.
Ask an Essential Question
Ask a simple question that is of little interest to students
Ask a somewhat strong and complex question that is somewhat interest to students
Ask a strong and multifacet question that interests students.
Processed Centered
Focus is on the ends, rather than the means.
Some learning happens during the process and some integral steps are included.
Much learning happenes during the process and many integral steps are included.
No Specific Answer
There is only one answer.
There is more than one answer but no more than five answers.
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